Vistula-Oder Offensive

The Vistula-Oder Offensive (12 January-2 February 1945) was a Red Army offensive mounted against the German Wehrmacht forces in central Poland and parts of eastern Germany in early 1945 during the last months of World War II. The Stavka planned to launch four major breakthrough operations aimed at Danzig, Koenigsberg, Poznan, and Breslau along a front of 400 miles, using 30 rifle armies, 5 tank armies, and 4 air armies (with artillery support), and the Red Army force had a total of 2,250,000 troops (including one-third of all Red Army infantry formations and 40% of all Soviet armor). The Soviets set up a dummy army of 600 tanks and self-propelled guns on the southern wing of the 1st Ukrainian Front, and the OKH was informed by its inteligence that /Konev was planning to assault the German sto the soouthwest of the Baranow bridgehead. German Army Group A shifted two divisions to Tarnow as Konev slipped armor, infantry, and artillery across the Vistula 40 miles to the north at Kielce. Adolf Hitler believed that there would be no Soviet offensives until the Western Allies and Joseph Stalin agreed on the government of a postwar Poland, but he was gravely mistaken, with masses of Soviet T-34 tanks crossing iron-hard frozen rivers and canals to invade the open plains of western Poland to Silesia.

Konev's Soviet artillery began obliterating the German front line at 4:35 AM on 12 January 1945, and the German command posts and bunkers collapsed under heavy fire. The Soviets stormed the first line of enemy trenches at Baranow and pushed forwards to take down the surviving German strongpoints. The 4th Panzer Army's headquarters was destroyed in a second round of bombardments, and the German mobile reserves were broken up. By midafternoon, the 4th Tank Army had advanced 12 miles towards Kielce, moving through "untankable" dense forests and crossing river valleys. The capture of Kielce allowed for the Soviets to advance, defeating uncoordinated counterattacks launched by Army Group A commander Josef Harpe. By the evening of 17 January 1945, the Soviets encircled Krakow, which was evacuated by its German garrison without a fight two days later. Konev's army proceeded to advance into Silesia, securing the heavy industrial treasure trove there.

Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front assaulted Army Group Center on 14 January 1945 after a 25-minute artillery bombardment, and the Soviets seized a bridge over the lower Pilica by nightfall. The 2nd Guards Tank Army poured over the bridge to seize the rail junction of Sochaczew, 30 miles west of Warsaw, and the German retreat from Warsaw was blocked. By the 15th, Konev and Zhukov's armies had punched three holes in the German line, and the Soviets joined up to hold a 300-mile stretch on the west bank of the Vistula as tanks and mechanized infantry advanced into western Poland. The Soviet 47th Army set out to clear the area between the Vistula and Bug rivers, and Warsaw was liberated by Soviet and Polish troops on 17 January, entering a silent city whose prewar population had been reduced to 160,000 famished survivors as the result of the failed Warsaw Uprising. On 19 January 1945, as Konev took Krakow, the 3rd Guards Tank Army crossed the German fronteir east of Breslau. By 27 January, Konev's army was in a position to cut off all of the Germans' escape routes in the east, but he left a "golden bridge" for Army Group A (now led by Schoerner) to escape as he followed orders to seize the regional war industries.

Hitler decided to reshuffle his command pack, renaming the surrounded Army Group North "Army Group Courland" and converting Army Group Center into Army Group North and Army Group A into Army Group Center. Hitler also created Army Group Vistula to cover Danzig and Pomerania, giving Heinrich Himmler command of the army group. The Soviet advance was slowed as Zhukov and Konev outran their own supply lines, as the two rivals raced to Berlin. Zhukov's dash to the Oder was halted by the city of Poznan, which was located at the junction of six railroads and seven roads and was massively fortified and garrisoned by 60,000 troops. It took until 22 February 1945 for Poznan to fall to the six Red Army divisions. Zhukov left Poznan in his rear to reach the Oder and cross it at the beginning of February. Vasily Chuikov's 8th Guards Army established a number of bridgeheads on the western bank of the Oder to the south of Kustrin, but the Germans were to hold bridgeheads to the east of the Oder until 20 March. On 2 February 1945, the Stavka declared a formal end to the Vistula-Oder Offensive.